a. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains generally to communication networks and specifically to network architectures with distributed intelligence.
b. Description of the Background
Cable television and digital subscriber line (DSL) networks are becoming prevalent for delivering data services to businesses and consumer homes. When each customer adds another device on the network, such as information appliances, laptop and desktop computers, television receivers, or other Internet capable devices, the network traffic increases dramatically.
Widely used network architectures have a large central controller, such as a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) or Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) to connect many subscribers to the Internet. The network performance diminishes as the communications load across the distribution backbone increases due in part to protocol overhead, especially with connection establishment and connection maintenance.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a system and method for providing improved service to subscribers using a given distribution backbone. It would be further advantageous to provide such service without adding substantial complexity or cost to the network